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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Cross - High cross

Town Parks (Kells Upper By.), County Meath, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Cross - High cross, Town Parks, County Meath, with a pin at the register's coordinates
Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915), covering this location. Courtesy of the National Library of Scotland. The pin is ours, placed from the register's coordinates.

The record

Townland
Town Parks (Kells Upper By.)
County
Meath
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Not indicated
Latest-edition OS map
Not indicated
Coordinates
53.72760, -6.88028
SMR number
ME017-044015-

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

4 historical maps cover this location, the earliest the 1636 map "Vltoniae Orientalis Pars" (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).

Historical maps covering this location

  • 1636 · Vltoniae Orientalis Pars (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1790 · Composite: Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1869 · Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1891 · Ireland 16 (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)

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This record in the National Monuments Service's Historic Environment Viewer ↗

The National Monuments Service's description

The west cross is also known as the broken cross. The base (dims at base 1.5m x 1.3m; H 0.83m) supports a shaft (dims 0.77m x 0.46m; H 2.61m) that has on the E face the baptism of Christ, the marriage feast of Cana, the raising of Lazarus, Christ and the adulteress , the presentation of Jesus in the Temple, the three Wise men and Herod (?). The W face has Adam and Eve, Noah’s ark, Moses in Egypt, and Moses with the pillar of fire. The N and S sides have interlace panels. Macalister (1934, 17, 18) read the inscription: Ór do Artgal do rigne I chroisse Muiredaig – ‘Pray for Artgal who made the cross of Muiredach’ running on the E and W faces of the base, but its authenticity is uncertain. (Harbision 1992, vol. 1, 100-03)

See the attached image of the E face (001) and images of the arrest of Christ (002) from the E face and Adam and Eve (041) from the W face.

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload: 2 July, 2014

References

Harbison, P. 1992 The high crosses of Ireland: an iconographical and photographic survey, 3 vols. Dublin. Royal Irish Academy. Bonn. Dr. Rudolf Habelt GMBH.

Macalister, R. A. S. 1934 The ancient inscriptions of Kells, Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, 64, 16-21.

Nearby in the register

Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.

Sites and Monuments Record data: National Monuments Service, Government of Ireland, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Record text is reproduced unchanged. National Monuments Service, Government of Ireland · CC BY 4.0
All Cross - High cross in Meath All County Meath records All Ireland Heritage registers Historical markers (US)National Register of Historic Places (US)
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